HAMPTON ROADS — If this summer felt like one of the hottest you’ve ever experienced, you’d be correct.
In the U.S., nearly 75 percent of the population experienced at least one day with scorching temperatures in the triple digits.
News 3 spoke with experts from climate central who explained why scientists are calling July 2023 the hottest month in recorded history.
“It's pretty clear that we're going to set that record,” said Dr. Andrew Pershing, the Vice President for Science at Climate Central
According to the World Meteorological Organization, the first three weeks of July were been the warmest three-week period on record.
“We really are experiencing climate change just about everywhere," said Pershing. "But then we have a few places that stand out.”
According to a recent report published by Climate Central, human-caused global warming made July hotter for four out of five people on earth.
Using their Climate Shift Index Tool, developed a year ago, the day with the most widespread climate change effect was July 10, when 3.5 billion people experienced extreme heat.
“It doesn't actually take conditions to rise very high before it will stress people who are not healthy," said Pershing. "If people have not been exposed to these high temperatures, that creates a health risk. And so, we see that across the country and around the world.”
And that can lead to dire consequences not just for humans — but also for wildlife, plants, and ecosystems worldwide.
“One of the worries I have through all of these events that we're seeing is what's happening to the ecosystems, which ultimately, we all depend on," said Pershing. "And so, you're seeing some of the like most extreme forms of stress, and the fires that are breaking out around the Mediterranean after this very hot month, and we're going to start to see other kinds of ecosystem stresses start to pop around the world as this year goes on."
"I'm an oceanographer, the one that pulls at my heart strings are the coral reefs, and I think that's sort of the next space that we're watching,” he said.
Experts are saying, as the climate continues to warm, these impacts will almost certainly intensify.
And in the long run, these records can be expected to be broken again, and again, and again until greenhouse gas emissions are cut to zero.
